By Mia Hanuska
Would I say I’m a mathematician? Definitely not. Far from it, in fact—I still count on my fingers and use a song to remember my times tables for multiples of three. Still, I would say I’m not math’s biggest hater; one may even call me a fan! So, here are my biggest math takes with little to no explanation… just hear me out on these.
Four is the best number
2×2=4. 2+2=4. 2^2=4. What more could one ask for? It’s a perfect square and the square root of 16 (another incredible number). It’s even, not prime (prime numbers are gross), and oozes the incredible color green. Plus, great things come in fours: the seasons, cardinal directions, TJ’s drinking yogurts, Madagascar penguins… the list goes on.
Partial fractions >>> integration by parts
I honestly have no clue if this is a proper hot take but partial fractions for integrals are so much better than integration by parts. You can catch me doing my A & B fractions any day, but don’t ask me what the formula is for integration by parts: I’ll need a Google search for that one.
Cylindrical coordinates any day
Alright, when Mr. “No photos…I’m not photogenic” introduced cylindrical coordinates (an alternative to the typical cartesian or polar coordinate planes, specifically for three dimensions), I was a bit apprehensive. However, I now look back on cylindrical coordinates with fond memories of actually knowing how to solve them rather than the confusion of spherical coordinates, making cylindrical coordinates the GOATed coordinate plane.
Rapid fire:
- The number nine is purple
- I HATE POLAR COORDINATES
- L’Hopital was lowkey onto something
- I would rather do 1000 Euler’s method problems than one series problem
- sqrt(6) should equal 3
- Every sequence converges (if you solve it wrong enough)
- Divergence, gradient, and curl are actually pretty fun to solve
- Why’d we even learn transformations back in IM1
- Equilateral triangles deserve more hype
- Rhombuses are far better than kites
- IXL is probably the cause of multiple peoples’ hatred for math
- Is anyone even reading this? Idk but side tangent I’m pro pineapple on pizza
- There’s no way people back in the day were doing all that without calculators
- Boxing your answer > writing the answer in a complete sentence > circling your answer
- V=IR is all you need for electricity
- When in doubt, chain rule it out